Blogging has come a long way in the past few years, from a social release for narcissists to today's required vehicle for promoting your consulting business and gaining valuable online exposure. Even with product businesses, it's the ultimate way to build your brand credibility, bring in customer leads, and get feedback from your target market.
Let me be clear—a product or consulting startup today without a blog, even with a static website, risks not being competitive in cost and time to reach and hold that critical mass of online customers. If you can't justify both a website and a blog, skip the old-fashioned website and make your blog do double duty as described later.
The challenge, as with all new technologies, is to make it work effectively and avoid wasted effort and expensive mistakes. Here are some tips I've gleaned from experience:
Lead with your blog: You should start blogging about your business before you have a product, to...